


Spousal Obligations

by pocky_slash



Series: Daycare 'Verse [26]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Established Relationship, Kid Fic, M/M, Married Couple, Shower Sex, Stress Relief
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-25
Updated: 2012-05-25
Packaged: 2017-11-06 00:39:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/412801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pocky_slash/pseuds/pocky_slash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Charles has a hard day, Erik stands in for the massage function on the shower head, and Raven eats dinner in front of the television.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spousal Obligations

**Author's Note:**

> Daycare verse! In the not-so-distant future! This was mostly written over email to **pearl_o** and maybe over chat to **littledust**? All of the words that I spew over various methods of communication are starting to blur together.

When Erik gets home from work, there's no one clambering to the door to greet him. It's not exactly uncommon, but it is a bit suspicious, given that he's later than usual and daycare's been closed for over an hour.

"Hello?" he calls out.

"Papa's home!" Raven shouts, and Erik follows her voice to the kitchen, just in time to catch her before she jumps from the counter back to the floor.

"Hold up there, monkey," he says, shifting her around into a proper embrace. "First of all, you _know_ Daddy doesn't like it when you climb on the counters."

"Daddy's not here," Raven says. "And I was hungry and I wanted more pizza."  
There are several incongruous things about that sentence. Pizza night is Thursday night, without fail, because Charles claims that Thursday is the worst night of the week and they need something to look forward to. Today is Friday. Also, 'Daddy's not here' is worrying.

Erik kisses the top of Raven's head in greeting and then asks, "Where's Daddy?"

"Upstairs," Raven says. "In the shower."

Erik shifts Raven so that she's perched on one hip and uses his free hand to put a piece of pizza onto a plate for her. There's just one other slice missing and the pie is only lukewarm.

"How long has Daddy been in the shower?" Erik asks.

"A million years," Raven says. "Since we got home." Going by the five-year-old to real time conversion rate, and given the usual time Charles locks up at the daycare, Erik estimates that Charles has been in the shower for about an hour. That's...troubling. Raven's already making a grab for the pizza, and Erik takes her into the living room and drops her on the couch before handing her the plate.

"Don't get sauce on the sofa and don't tell Daddy I let you eat in front of the teevee," he says.

"I won't," Raven promises. "Alex says that Scott says that you can drown in the bath. I said that was stupid, but then Jean said that it was true. Can you drown in the shower too? Did Daddy drown in the shower?"

"You can't drown in the shower because you're standing up, not sitting down like you do in the bath," Erik says. Fucking Summers kids. "I'm sure Daddy just wants to make sure he's extra clean."

Raven nods and takes a bite of her pizza. "He was wearing a suit today," she says through a mouthful of mushroom and sausage. "He left daycare right at the start and Mr. Logan stayed with us and then Daddy came back at the end to pick me up."

Did Charles have court today? Erik doesn't even know. The last few days have blurred together as he prepares a proposal for a new contract bid, tweaking his designs and constantly revising his presentation at Pepper's behest, something about it needing to be comprehensible to people who aren't scientists. He tries to remember if Charles might have said something to him before bed, but he can't recall anything past taking a shower, crawling between the sheets, and passing out before Charles had finished brushing his teeth.

"Eat your dinner, baby," Erik says. "I'm going to go check on Daddy."

He hears Raven scramble for the remote once he's gone and hopes she's being mindful of the plate of pizza, though he has the impression that Charles has more on his mind tonight than the state of the upholstery.

_Charles?_ He reaches out tentatively, the projection gentle and calm. In response, he gets a wave of acknowledgement, but no actual communication. Erik climbs the stairs and makes his way to their bathroom, foggy with steam despite the fan whirring overhead. He stands in the doorway for a moment, just watching. Charles is standing still under the spray, seemingly oblivious to Erik's presence. He's not crying, which is good. Erik walked in on Charles crying hysterically in the shower only once, over four years ago and under awful circumstances, but it was traumatizing enough that he's not eager to repeat it.

"The showerhead is broken," Charles says eventually, his voice flat and dull. "The massage function won't turn on."

Erik spends only a short moment in consideration before methodically stripping off his clothes.

"I'll fix it tomorrow," he says.

"My neck hurts," Charles says.

Erik pulls back the curtain and steps into the shower. Charles inches backwards, but otherwise doesn't react until Erik combs his wet hair out of his eyes and then moves to rub at the tense muscle beneath Charles' neck.

"Thank you," Charles says quietly, glancing up at Erik.

"Spousal obligations," Erik says. He digs his thumbs in hard and Charles stiffens and squeaks in pain before relaxing, his head falling forward to rest against Erik's shoulder. "Did you have court today?" Although, now that he thinks about it, Raven said that Logan subbed for Charles and when Charles was called as an expert witness, it was usually at Logan's behest.

"Worse," Charles says. "Meeting with the State Education Department."

"Right," Erik says. He scours his memory for any past reference to this. He comes up entirely blank. "The...thing." It helps that, though his improvisational skills are terrible, he frequently replaces most nouns and some verbs with a dismissive use of the word "thing." Charles is either too tired to notice that this is ignorance, not laziness, or too tired to care. He wraps his arms around Erik's back, clinging to his shoulders as Erik continues his gentle, impromptu massage.

"They want to redo the mutant education program but none of them know the first thing about education, let alone mutant education, and it's like herding particularly willful kittens. I thought my head was going to split open."  He hums, low in his throat, the noise reverberating against Erik's skin. "Mm, that's gorgeous, don't stop."

The water temperature, Erik notices, is starting to flag. He reaches out to the water heater in the basement and gives it a little bit of a boost until the temperature levels out again, just shy of scalding. He resumes kneading the back of Charles' neck and shoulders until he's plastered against Erik's front, sloppy and boneless and soft.

Well, mostly soft.

"I take it the meeting was unproductive?" Erik asks, turning the massage into a gentle caress up and down Charles' spine.

"The first of several unproductive meetings, it seems," Charles mutters. "I'm trying to convince them to do a small scale pilot program, maybe just one or two schools, instead of wasting hours of workgroup meetings that might prove fruitless upon implementation. Of course, getting them to listen to me at all is impossible. To most of them I'm just an uneducated kid, a mutant babysitter."

Erik tries to clamp down on the anger that flashes through him at that, knowing full well that the people who deserve his ire will be blissfully unaware and the spike of heat will only serve to rouse Charles disapprovingly from his sleepy, affectionate state. He's not quite fast enough, though, and Charles twitches, turning his head to look up at Erik. There's water beading on his eyelashes.

"Fuck them," Erik says. "You're the smartest person I've ever met, and I work for Tony Stark. You're not an uneducated kid, you're a twenty-eight year old genius juggling a booming demand for consultation, a rapidly expanding business, a precocious five year old, and a needy husband and still keeping all the balls in the air."

Charles' lips curl up into a smile, slow and soft.

"Needy?" he asks.

"Well," Erik says, dipping his head until he's just shy of pressing his lips to Charles', "I need things." He kisses Charles, lazy and open-mouthed, and drags their hips together. "I have needs."

"I see that," Charles says. He licks against Erik's jaw and Erik can't help shuddering. "I think you didn't quite finish that massage, darling." He rolls his hips and steals another kiss, biting Erik's lip.

"Your lines are terrible," Erik says, but he wraps his hands around Charles' hips to keep him from moving away. As if he would. As if he's not clinging to Erik so hard his fingernails are leaving indentations in Erik's skin. "They really haven't gotten better with age."

"I could skip the lines," Charles says, a hoarse edge to this voice when he looks up from under his damp hair. "I could just ask you to touch my cock. Would you prefer that?"

Erik's mouth dries out, his throat suddenly tight with lust. It's sometimes a little dizzying, how Charles can still do this to him with just a look, just the sound of his voice and the intensity of his gaze. It's a quick shuffle of feet in the cramped interior of the shower to press Charles against the wall, pinning him in place with his body long enough to hover his hand just shy of where Charles wants it.

"Yes," he murmurs. "I would. Say it again."

"I want you to touch my cock," Charles says again, panting, desperate, and Erik kisses him and does as he asks, pressing Charles harder against the wall and squeezing both their cocks in his fist as they gasp together, the water pounding against Erik's back.

It's almost lazy, the movements of Erik's arm. He rests his weight against his other arm, propped against the wall. Charles' head lolls to the side, both displaying his neck and leaving his face close enough for Erik's fingertips to drag through Charles' wet hair. The noises Charles is making are soft, but no less needy for it, just audible over the rush of the shower. Erik dips his head and kisses Charles' collarbone, scrapes his teeth over it to hear Charles whimper high in his throat.

" _Erik_ ," he says, his grip on Erik's shoulders tightening. Erik raises his mouth to the soft spot behind Charles' ear and twists his wrist, pulling together all he knows about getting Charles off as quickly as he can. Just enough teeth, just the right amount of pressure, the right angle of his wrist--

Charles hisses and gasps and Erik rides his climax with practiced ease. He's learned over the years how to block it out, how to hold on to himself and keep going once Charles has already come, but tonight, in this short time they've carved out for each other in the shower, with their daughter smearing greasy fingerprints on the couch downstairs, he lets Charles' pleasure overwhelm him and kickstart his own until he's collapsed against Charles, panting against the side of his neck.

They stay that way, relaxed and drifting in the shower spray, until the water starts to go cold again. Charles raises his hand to comb through Erik's hair.

"Thank you, my love," he says, and kisses the side of Erik's jaw. Erik raises his head just far enough to return the kiss to Charles' mouth.

"Anytime," Erik says. "Are you ready to return to the real world, or should I give the hot water heater another jolt?"

Charles sighs, but he doesn't let go of Erik.

"I suppose I've left Raven on her own for long enough." He looks up at Erik. "And by 'on her own,' I do mean 'I've kept psychic tabs on her' and you and I will be having another conversation about what is and isn't appropriate for her to eat on the couch."

"It's just pizza," Erik says. He wraps his arms around Charles, crossing his wrists at the small of Charles' back. "It'll be fine. I've done worse. It kept her distracted long enough for me to give you a handjob in the shower, didn't it?"

"I suppose it did," Charles admits. He tips his head up in an obvious bid for another kiss that Erik is more than happy to oblige. "I hope you don't mind pizza for dinner again. I was too exhausted to think of anything else. Moira tells me that Raven spent a good deal of time shifting skins today, so she'll probably be able to put away at least half a pie on her own, so I also got us some pasta."

"Sounds good," Erik says, but another kiss is interrupted by his rumbling stomach.

"Clearly," Charles says, and gently wiggles out of Erik's hold. "Dinner, I think."

"Good idea," Erik says, flicking off the water with a twitch of his finger. "I'll tell you about how shitty my day was in excruciating, minute-by-minute detail. I bet it will make you feel better."

"My god, I'm lucky to have such a charitable husband," Charles says dryly. He grabs two towels from the rack next to the shower and throws one at Erik's head. 

"And don't you forget it," Erik says, following Charles out of the bathroom to get dressed and join Raven downstairs for dinner.


End file.
